Tag: Volvo

If you have not heard of this and you are a runner or cyclist – check this out: LifePaint

Note – this would also be awesome to use on anyone playing hide and go seek at night – without their knowledge! In all seriousness though – this is a great idea and I hope it helps make the streets safer for bikers/runners.

Of the three cars I have ever owned, all of them have been Volvos. When Ford purchased Volvo back I figured it was the end for Volvo. Although I am still rocking my 2000 S80 – I have been thinking about what I would drive next. No Volvo over the last ten years really excited me and all of them seemed like some “high end” Ford that did not have anything that made it special. I was excited to see how Jaguar changed after being sold by Ford and was hoping the same would be true for my beloved car company Volvo. A few years ago, Volvo was sold and I patiently awaited the rebirth of their amazing car line. Thankfully, the wait is finally over. Volvo recently announced their new S90 which looks amazing inside and out.

Half profile Volvo S90 Mussel Blue

For the first time in a long time Volvo announced a car that looks very promising as well as looks like a return to the Volvo I know and love. I am very excited to test drive it in the next few months and regardless if I end up buying one – I am glad to see Volvo back on track. Nice work Volvo and welcome back!

If you know me – you know I am a big Volvo fan. My first car was a 1986 Volvo GLE and despite what my family will say – it was a great car. I have carried the Volvo torch now and am on my third Volvo – my beloved S80 T6. While I love Volvo cars for many things – I am always impressed with how people drive them, and drive them, give them to their kids, and then they drive them even more. The other day while at the store – we parked next to a Volvo with a badge (you can get badges for each 100,000 mile mark you pass). I have seen a number of 100,000 badges (and I am close to getting my own), but I saw something I had never seen before – a 300,000 mile badge. At that point I took a look at the actual mileage and saw this car was actually at 361,000. Not too bad! I hope I can hit 200,000 with my current car but to even think about 361,000 – that was a treat to see. Cheers to the owner!

I am a Volvo fan tried and true. This morning I needed to go out. My Volvo was pretty buried from the Chicago blizzard (the snow was even packed tight in my wheel bases!). Without fail – I turned it on and backed right up, no problems. Thank you Scandinavia!

The day my twins were born, my mother was on her way home from the hospital and a limo driver decided to make a right turn into my mother – who was driving my Volvo. As soon as I heard about this – I knew there was only one place I would take my car: Patrick Collision in Schaumburg, IL. They are a part of my Volvo dealer’s group – and I have always been impressed with their work and service.

My car was in their hands for a week and when I picked it up today it was like getting a new car. Not only did they do the repairs, they also washed, vacuumed, and waxed my car to make it look polished. All their work is guaranteed for the life of the car and the people I worked with there could not have been nicer. All in all – as much as you never want to deal with collision work – if you have to, make sure you check out Patrick Collision.

I became a Volvo driver for life the moment I sat down in my friend Casey’s 1982 Volvo in college. There is just something about them…and I am now on my third Volvo myself. Volvo has introduced some great things over the years that went onto affect the entire auto industry (the first car company to use the 3 point seatbelts – made standard in all Volvo cars in 1959). I was born almost 20 years later and still remember my parents having a few cars with out those seatbelts standard!).

The front seats surround you with perforated leather and are ventilated using built-in fans in the cushions and seat backs to provide extra comfort during hot days. And to really spoil you during long journeys, these seats also feature a new massage function in the lumbar section.

Hello – hot days in the car and long trips where I could really use a massage. Awesome!

Everyone that either knows me or has followed this blog for awhile knows that I have been very unhappy with what Ford has done with the Volvo line since they bought it. Perhaps times are changing because the new Volvo S80 looks awesome. Why?

Ford did not mess up the design, I actually like it. (Think BMW 700 meets Audi with a touch of Volvo…not Ford Tempo meets Mercury Sable). The backend is still not as sharp (in my opinion) as my S80 (2000…see picture in the header above), but it is still very Volvo.

You can now get a V8 (311 HP).

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) – you select the desired speed as well as desired time gap to the vehicle in front of you. Amy and I will greatly benefit from this as I always think she drives too close to the car in front of us.

Collision Warning – if you get too close to the car in front of you, a warning alert appears on the windshield along with audio alert.

Blindspot Information System (BLIS) – a camera in the outer mirror detects vehicles in your blind spot and then uses a warning signal near the mirror to alert you of the vehicle.

The Personal Car Communicator (PCC) – you can use this from anywhere to check if the car is locked or unlocked. There is also a heartbeat sensor that can tell you if anyone is in the car. Not to mention, the PCC also allows you enter and drive without a key.

I have been waiting for this day for a long time…to be excited about Volvo again. Great work Volvo! Now I just need to wait for a few years until I *need* a new car.
[tags]Volvo, S80[/tags]

Diet/lifestyle update…I weighed in yesterday and actually lost a few pounds last week! That is from all the moving (I moved my home office to a different part of my home to further separate home stuff and work stuff) and IKEA assembly coupled with yardwork over the weekend. Now I just need to keep that up!

I am putting the finishing touches on a re-write of my company web site that I have been working on for the last several weeks now. I still need to do some final QA as well as to validate everything…and fill the sitemap, but it is pretty complete so I thought I would put it. There will always be something to do. I have a few HOWTO blog postings coming up on how I did some of the things I did.

What is the deal with gas prices?? The low-grade by me is now at $3.24 and climbing. Come on Volvo/LandRover…let’s get on the alternate fuel bandwagon.

Speaking of Volvo…I got a letter in the mail from Volvo…I have to take my S80 in for a software upgrade. I love it!

The upgrade to XOOPS 2.0.14 has been rocky. I am having some major problems with a few of my main modules (SmartSection, Protector) which produce blank pages. This is why I use a development server for testing before updating any of my production sites.

If you know me, you know that the slogan “Volvo for Life” is perfect for me. When I was in college, my parents bought me my first car so I could have one for my five week archaeology field school in Virginia at Thomas Jefferson’s home at Polular Forest. I then traded that in for a 1998 S70 which I kept for a few years, but in the back of my mind knew I would not be happy until I have a S80 T6, so I bought one of those and drive it today. Sad news came a few years back when Ford bought Volvo, so I have been looking more closely at other non-Ford owned car companies (and have been happy to see Ford and GM sweat it out the last few months). I have been leaning towards LandRover as my next choice of car (Range Rover or an old Discovery), but via my TiVo, a new option came into play…the Audi Q7. Why an SUV you might ask? Try buying a door, or crown molding, or a snowblower, or moving, etc with a car. Amy and I have been through this for multiple years now and it has gotten real old. While I do not think I need a dual wheel truck, I do need something that has some serious cargo space. While I am not a huge fan of the back end of the Audi Q7, the rest of Audi’s new SUV is pretty sweet and definitely worth a look. Too bad their web site is one of the worst I have seen in awhile. Come on! Did I ever mention how much I hate windows that resize to be the maximum width and height as your monitor can handle? That has to be in my top ten design pet peeves….hmmm time to make the list!

Well well…if it is not one thing it is the other. I went to pick up Ken this morning at O’Hare and as we were in the first toll booth, stopped, waiting for the person in front of me to pay…smash! I did not know what happened for a few minutes, but then we realized we were hit from the back. No high speeds, no air bags deployed, but I thought for sure I would walk around and see a huge dent or something on my beautiful S80 T6. When I looked around, I only saw a little scratch. Then I looked at the piece of garbage souped up Civic behind me. Their customized front was cracked in half. Sure, the guy did a hit and run (he promised he would follow us to trade info, but never pulled off the highway when we did), but Ken got his license plate. No one got hurt, and we will see what happens with my slight paint issue, but regardless…I will always smile when I think about how my car held up compared to the other “souped up” 4 cylindar piece of garbage. Have fun fixing that repair buddy.